The introductory lecture of Thomas Cooper, Esq., professor of chemistry at Carlisle College, Pennsylvania / published at the request of the trustees ; with notes and references.

  • Cooper, Thomas, 1759-1839.
Date:
1812
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The introductory lecture of Thomas Cooper, Esq., professor of chemistry at Carlisle College, Pennsylvania / published at the request of the trustees ; with notes and references. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    and by the Rev. Mr. Townsend is well known. Ex; cepting the indirect probabilities suggested by Capt. Pike, we have no sufficient authority for the salt mountain said to exist near the Arkansas, tho' such a rock was long ago laid down in the French maps of Louisiana, particularly in a map in my possession by M. De la Rochette. The natron (2 8) of the ancients was not nitre : but the fossile alkali, or alkali of Soda ; probably procured from the incineration of marine plants growing about the lower lakes, and on the seabord of the Delta. It might indeed be contaminated with cubic nitre, in such a climate, owing to the nitrogen arising from animal putridity. Natron was likewise found at the Greek settlement of Naucrate and also at Memphis. The passage in Pliny which is my authority, has expressions that may be referred according to Bergman to the sublimation of salmmoniac, which is also mentioned by Athenaeus,. (Deipnosophist. L. 2. c. 29.) as an article of export from Egypt into Persia. Natron however was used for salting meat, Herod. Eut. 77. 11 numb. 32. Their alum is mentioned by Pliny, as a mordant tbr dyed goods, that is, using modern language for his meaning.